Word Origin & History

fan O.E. (W. Saxon) fann "a basket or shovel for winnowing grain" (by tossing it in the air), from L. vannus, related to ventus "wind" (see wind (n.)). The chaff, being lighter, would blow off. Sense of "device for moving air" first recorded late 14c.; the hand-held version is first attested 1550s. Related: Fanned; fanning. To fan out "spread out like a hand-held fan," is from 1590s. A fan-light (1819) originally was shaped like a lady's fan.

Example Sentences for fan

Scotty, suppose you get the binoculars for Barby, then rig up a fan.

Then she opened and shut her fan two or three times, still looking at me.

And, all at once, who should appear but Fan Tail, the gold fish.

I looked at her a moment; she met my eyes gravely, over the top of her fan.

Then she paused for Maria to fan a little more breath into her.

Joe took a chair while he waited and thumbed through a fan magazine.

Suddenly a door was flung open and a fan of light flared out upon the steps.

The faithful team, Fan and Bill, were kept on the road most of the time.

A "top hat" goes spinning out into the roadway, and a fan flies through the midst of the glare.

But the softness of her voice seemed to fan the smouldering fires in him.